1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to image data management and in particular to a method and system for encoding and decoding multiple wide-area surveillance area-of-interest video codestreams.
2. Discussion of Related Art
A very large image generally contains a plurality of pixels, for example, several hundreds of megapixels (Mp) or several thousands of megapixels. Each pixel has one, two or more bands. Each band has a certain color depth or bit depth. For example, an RGB color-based image has 3 bands, the red band (R), the green band (G) and the blue band (B). Each of the R, G and B bands can have a depth of 8 bits or more. Hence, in this example, each pixel can have a total bit depth of 24 bits or more. In another example, an infra-red (IR) image has 1-band, the IR-band. This band can have a bit depth of 12-bits. For the purpose of computational convenience, it can be stored within 16-bits. Hence, in this example, each pixel can have a total bit depth of 16-bits.
An image sensor can be used to capture a series of images, each image having several hundred megapixels. The images may be captured in sequence, for example at a reasonably constant frequency (e.g., 2 Hz). Each image (i.e., each still image) in the sequence or series of images may have one or more distinct bands and may cover any part of the electromagnetic spectrum that can be captured by the image sensor. The image sensor may be a single sensor or a combination or a matrix of multiple sensors arranged to generate a single image.
The captured series of images are referred to interchangeably as wide-area surveillance imagery, wide-area motion imagery (WAMI) or wide-area persistent surveillance imagery.